PART TWO

It is also proposed to adopt the amendments and additions to the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On the election of the chairman (aksakal) of citizens’ gathering and his advisers”, which would envisage the measures on further improvement of the election system of chairmen of citizens’ self-governance bodies, ensure election of aksakals and their advisers from among the most respected citizens, and upgrading the importance and role of makhalla in promoting the social activeness of citizens.

It is high time to adopt the Law “On public control in the Republic of Uzbekistan” aimed at creating the systematic and effective legal mechanism of control on the part of society and civic institutions over implementation of laws by bodies of state power and governance. In the law we must define the types, forms and subjects of public control, the subject of control and legal mechanisms of its implementation, as well as the conditions when the officials are accountable for the failure to implement the legislation in force in this sphere.

In this regard, it is essential to elaborate the National program of action in the sphere of human rights which would stipulate the measures on carrying out the public monitoring over observance of laws, first of all, by law-enforcement and controlling agencies, in the spheres of protection of human rights and freedoms, and forming the culture of human rights in the society, etc.

It is also necessary to introduce amendments and additions to the Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On administrative responsibility”, which shall stipulate enhancement of responsibility of officials of state bodies for infringement of provisions of law that define the rights of NGOs in various spheres of social and state construction, social and economic development in the regions.

It is quite significant to work out the package of laws that create the legal basis for participation of NGOs in implementing the priority state programs in the spheres of public health, protection of environment, employment, especially, among youth, social protection of vulnerable groups of population, and other problems of great social importance.

In particular, it is high time to draft the Law “On ecological control” aimed at defining the role and place of the NGOs in the system of environmental protection, as well as some other legislative acts.

VI. Further deepening the democratic market reforms and liberalization of economy

At the initial stage of the country’s independent development (the period from 1991-2000) our main attention in terms of carrying out the large-scale reforms was paid to destruction of the centralized administrative and command system and creation of conditions to establish the foundations, and first of all, the legal basis of market economy.

We can mention the following important laws and normative acts adopted at that period: the Civil, Land, Tax and Customs codes, the Laws “On denationalization and privatization”, “On banks and banking activity”, “On foreign investments”, and “On guarantees and measures to protect the rights of foreign investors”.

The elaboration and implementation at the next phase of our reforms of such laws as “On guarantees of freedom of entrepreneurship”, “On private enterprise”, “On currency regulation”, “On foreign economic activity”, “On farms”, the new wording of the tax code and more than 400 laws on reforming the economy, served not only as a solid legal foundation of further liberalization and modernization of economy, but also stood as a guarantee of irreversibility of market reforms underway.

Meanwhile, the objective analysis, logics and pace of our reforms and assessment of their conformity with modern market norms dictate a persistent demand for further deepening, improvement and liberalization of the system of management of economy.

In the first instance, we need to strengthen the rights and protection of private ownership, create a system of solid guarantees in which any private owner must be confident that legally purchased or created private property is inviolable. Each businessman should know that he can without fear invest in his business, expand industrial activity, increase the volume of production and income, as well as own, use and dispose his property keeping in mind that the state is on the watch over the lawful rights of a private owner. For these purposes it is necessary to work out and adopt the Law “On protection of private property and guarantees of rights of owners”, which would fix the principal guarantees of the state with regard to private ownership that represents the basis of market economy.

In order to improve the system of management and eliminate the excessive bureaucratic obstacles, it will be important to draft and adopt the Law “On licensing procedures in the sphere of entrepreneurial activity”. We need to clearly define the strictly limited shortlist and types of licensing procedures required to do business, thus resolutely cutting the excessive restrictions and setting forward the legislative prohibition on introduction of the new types of licenses and licensing procedures not envisaged by law.

To expand the small business and entrepreneurship, the time has come to define by law the new organizational and legal form of business – the family business. In Uzbekistan this form of business completely corresponds to the developed national traditions of doing business and objective realities of economic activity. I am confident that establishing the legislative basis for its organization shall allow to improve legal guarantees of family business, bring about the conditions for a rapid and extensive development of family business in different branches of economy, and creation of new jobs.

Our financial and banking system has proved its sustainability and reliability during the financial and economic crisis. Meanwhile, its further consolidation is also linked to attracting a private capital to the banking and financial sphere through establishing the legislative foundation of setting up private banks and such financial institutions as leasing and insurance companies, credit unions and micro-financial organizations based on private ownership. This shall contribute to intensifying competition and raising the quality of banking and other financial services, and create conditions for developing modern market infrastructure that meets the highest international standards.

Paying tribute to an enormous work accomplished in the past years to establish a reliable legislative basis of market reforms, we have to acknowledge that many existing laws need a serious review with due consideration of practices of their application and the new realities of development of market relations in the country.

For example, in our country practically all industrial facilities were set up in the form of joint-stock companies. However, let us ask a question: to what extent the joint-stock companies operate in conformity with their status and to what extent they are using the relevant rights. What mechanisms we need to enact so that the joint-stock companies operate in line with their market status. In this context, we need to critically reassess, draft and adopt the new wording of the Law “On joint-stock companies and protecting the rights of shareholders”. The law shall more clearly define the authorities, rights and responsibility of bodies of corporate management and control to raise the role and importance of Supervisory Boards, general meetings and auditing commissions of the joint-stock companies, ensure greater guarantees to minority shareholders, expand the access of all shareholders and potential investors to information about the operations of the joint-stock companies.

We still face a pressing question about adoption of the laws, which would ensure further expanding the scales, role and share of small business, and first of all, the private entrepreneurship in the country’s economy.

Despite the fact that this year the share of small business in the GDP will exceed 50 percent, nevertheless it does not take a leading role in the sector of real economy, primarily, in the industry. To address this task we ought to draft the new wording of the Law “On guarantees of freedom of entrepreneurial activity”, which shall envisage the followings: to streamline the scheme of access to set up small business and private entrepreneurship, provide greater freedom for their operations, give incentives for this sector through such mechanisms as crediting, access to resources, obtaining the government contractual work, granting the new benefits for marketing their production, phased transition, according to the international practice, to procedure of annual declaration of income, to further streamline the system of financial and statistical report, including submitting it to the authorized state bodies in electronic form.

In developing competition, which makes up the core of market relations, the antimonopoly legislation plays a great role. However, the existing Law “On competition and restricting monopolistic activity on the commodity markets” is outdated and does not meet the modern requirements. We need to draft and adopt the new Law “On competition”, which would stipulate the norms that regulate the monopolistic activity not only on the commodity, but also on the financial markets, introduce the norms on antimonopoly regulations on operations in the stock market, to simplify the procedure of control and regulation of operations of merger, takeover and purchase of shares.

Today more than 80 percent of the GDP of the country is provided by the non-state sector. We should acknowledge that the Law “On denationalization and privatization” of 1991 now requires review and adoption in the new wording, despite the fact that for over the past period we have managed to consolidate more than 80 by-laws.

We need to continue expanding the share of non-state sector and attract the private investors to the leading and most important branches of economy preserving in the hands of state the controlling package or the “golden” share of strategically important sectors and enterprises of the country. Meanwhile, we should envisage the openness and publicity of privatization deals, extend participation of the private sector in privatization, and ensure equal access to privatization for all categories of potential investors.

To develop the aforementioned basic laws, we will need to adopt other new laws, which would facilitate our further advancement towards free market economy, for example: “On activity of credit bureaus and exchange of credit information”, “On mortgage register”, “On real estate activity”, “On investment and mutual funds”, “On innovations and modernization of economy” and other laws in line with logics and dynamics of market reforms underway in Uzbekistan.

Defining the most important priorities of the country’s economic development, we need to pay a special importance to stimulate the domestic demand. The implementation of this policy within the Anti-crisis program on neutralizing the consequences of the global financial and economic crisis has fully justified itself for over the past years. We should emphasize that now it is this position that is pursued by many Asian countries.

Proceeding from this, our priority task for the nearest future is to continue what we have started, i.e. to pay a special attention to further increasing the consumer demand of population, primarily, through development of the social sphere and services, priority implementation of the infrastructure, transport and communication projects, as well as progressive raising wages.

Dear participants of the meeting!
Distinguished deputies!

In conclusion, I would like to express a confidence that the proposed Concept of further deepening the democratic reforms and establishing the civil society in the country shall become a basis for the Oliy Majlis to draft and implement the concrete and long-term action program in order to continue the process of reforms and modernization of Uzbekistan that we started almost 20 years ago.

I am addressing you with an appeal: let us do our utmost so that the course of reforms and renewal becomes a common mobilizing goal for all our society, each and every person living on our land of plenty today.

PART ONE

Source: Jahon